climatetech4

2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Winners Improve Equitable Access to Essential Needs with Solutions Using IBM watsonx

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 23:24:10 GMT

Winning teams from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Persistent, and independent consultants developed AI-powered solutions to help improve equitable access to essential resources and opportunities

BOULDER, CO., Dec. 10, 2024 – Today, in alignment with United Nations Human Rights Day, Call for Code, the largest tech-for-good initiative of its kind driven by creator David Clark Cause, Founding Partner IBM (NYSE: IBM), Charitable Partner United Nations Human Rights , and Program Affiliate the Linux Foundation announced the winners of the annual Call for Code Global Challenge. Developers and problem solvers across the globe were invited to create AI-powered technology projects that address specific challenges of equitable access to essential needs. This year’s top prizes went to teams GoBang, Kind Threads and T-Chai, which used IBM watsonx AI technologies and AI models like IBM Granite , to help improve access to education, learning resources, and essential needs like clothing and income.

"There is no better moment than UN Human Rights Day to announce this year’s Call for Code Global Challenge winners," said David Clark, founder and CEO of Call for Code. "These AI-powered technologies tackle the pressing challenge of equitable access to essential needs—a cornerstone of human rights rooted in the principles of equality, dignity, and fairness. Equitable access drives social justice by breaking down systemic barriers and ensuring marginalized communities are not left behind.”

2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Winning Teams

The Grand Prize-winning team will receive $50,000 USD, as well as solution implementation support from the Call for Code ecosystem, as applicable. The runners-up will receive $25,000 USD and $10,000 USD. All three teams have the opportunity to receive assistance from the Linux Foundation to open source their application.

The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Grand Prize Winner is GoBang, a group of students from Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Michigan addressing educational inequality, especially for under-resourced schools in their home country of Taiwan. They used IBM watsonx.ai to develop an application to provide educators with a customizable AI dashboard for course planning, including lesson plans, worksheets and recommendations. As the top scoring university team, they also are the recipients of the 2024 University Grant, receiving $30,000 USD for their schools and eligibility for an opportunity to explore job opportunities at IBM, alongside the option to be matched with an IBM mentor.

The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge First Runner-up Winner is KindThreads. The team from Persistent created an IBM watsonx.ai-powered platform that helps local communities turn clothing waste into essential resources and income opportunities. The app uses watsonx.ai Prompt Lab to identify and categorize the clothing item, assess its wearability, and provide data-driven recommendations on how it can be reused, recycled, or donated based on its condition.

The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Second Runner-up Winner is T-Chai. The team developed an AI-powered homework tutor based on IBM watsonx.ai and the IBM Granite large language model that adapts the level and complexity of its responses to match the student’s age and profile. The application can also assist parents in understanding their child's curriculum, finding age-appropriate educational resources, creating practice tests, and providing effective memorization techniques on computers and smartphones, to provide underserved families access to right-fit learning resources.

“Call for Code continues to inspire some of the brightest and most creative problem solvers worldwide to develop solutions that tackle global social and humanitarian issues, such as equitable access to resources,” said Kate Woolley, general manager, IBM Ecosystem. “I would like to congratulate today’s winners and thank all the 2024 Call for Code teams and IBM partners that participated in this year’s challenge, demonstrating how Generative AI technologies such as IBM watsonx and IBM Granite models can be utilized to drive change around the world.”

"The challenge is not just an opportunity to demonstrate how technology can truly make a difference, but a call to action for those passionate about using their skills to solve real-world problems. It is a reminder that innovation can drive meaningful change, and through collaboration, we can make an impact that matters," said Anwar Mahfoudh, Chief, Innovation and Analytics Hub, UN Human Rights. "This year's impressive winners used AI-powered technologies to address community challenges that tackle big SDG and human rights related problems. Their remarkable solutions not only inspire hope but also reaffirm our shared commitment to leaving no one behind in the fight for justice and equality."

2024 Ecosystem Engagement Award

Since 2019, the Call for Code Ecosystem Engagement Awards have recognized organizations that have answered the call and exhibited a deep commitment to Call for Code. For 2024, Call for Code is honoring Persistent with this award for their collaboration in this year’s program. Persistent has partnered with and sponsored Call for Code for several years, and once again they are a Gold Sponsor of Call for Code in 2024. In September, Persistent held their third annual in-person Global Challenge Kickoff event in Pune, India. 11 teams from Persistent were inspired to submit projects to this year’s Global Challenge and one team, KindThreads, was a finalist in this year’s competition. The challenge provides a great opportunity for skills development and team building for Persistent employees, and it aligns with Persistent’s culture of innovation and commitment to societal contribution. Persistent’s support continues to be invaluable to the success of Call for Code.

Since its launch in 2018, Call for Code has become an annual rally call for developers around the world to come together and think creatively about how to help solve the world’s largest problems with technology. Call for Code helps participants gain skills in AI and hybrid cloud technology by offering access to build with technology like IBM watsonx , Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud . IBM Ecosystem partners provide subject matter expertise that can help teams advance their solutions, as well as encourage employee participation.

About Call for Code

Developers are the visionaries of progress, shaping the way humanity lives, connects, and thrives in an ever-changing world. Where others see obstacles, developers see solutions. Recognizing this potential, David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, launched Call for Code in 2018 with IBM as Founding Partner, United Nations Human Rights as Charitable Partner, and The Linux Foundation as Program Affiliate. Since then, Call for Code has mobilized developers from over 180 countries to address the world’s most pressing challenges—from disaster response to combating climate change. In 2022, Call for Code it was named the preferred innovation platform for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the largest public-private initiative addressing climate change, supported by United Nations Human Rights and the University of Oxford. This collaboration underscores Call for Code’s unparalleled impact in mobilizing developers worldwide to drive meaningful change on a global scale.

UN Human Rights-supported Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance Selects University of Oxford as Academic Partner

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 14:42:04 GMT

Demi Lovato, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Carole King, Laura Pausini, Rob Thomas, Jeff Bridges and More Ignite COP28 Right Here, Right Now Campaign

DUBAI, UAE, December 8, 2023 / EINPresswire.com / -- At the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance (RHRN), a multi-year international climate justice initiative supported by global partner United Nations Human Rights (UNHR), announced the University of Oxford has been selected as Right Here, Right Now Academic Partner. As part of the multi-year initiative, the prestigious university will co-host the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with UNHR. The global summit in Oxford, UK will include satellite events staged by supporting universities around the world, as well as an all-star awareness concert co-hosted by the Recording Academy ® , United Nations Human Rights, and the University of Oxford.

“With our well-established and world-leading expertise in climate related research, the University of Oxford is proud to be the Academic Partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to co-host this pivotal summit, bringing together leaders in human rights and climate research from around the world, across a wide range of disciplines, with the common goal of finding solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our times, climate change,” said Irene Tracey, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

RHRN and UNHR unveiled the first iteration of the Human Rights Climate Commitments (HRCC), a groundbreaking initiative for rights-based climate action inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments. This global initiative facilitated by UNHR and the University of Colorado Boulder is based on the specific human rights obligations and responsibilities of states and other actors, including businesses. The HRCC are tailored to specific human rights duty-bearers, including states, sub-national governments, businesses, and educational institutions. They will be updated periodically to reflect the latest science and highest standards creating a continually self-renewed virtuous cycle of opportunities for duty-bearers to increase the ambition of their commitments to rights-based climate action. In the build-up to COP29, duty-bearers will be asked to take on these commitments and announce their pledges. Pledges will be monitored for compliance and the results will be publicly reported. The HRCC has been shepherded by S. James Anaya, Distinguished International Law Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.

RHRN also revealed that its celebrity driven COP28 campaign for climate justice commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including Demi Lovato, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Carole King, Laura Pausini, Rob Thomas, Jeff Bridges, Chelsea Handler and more has reached over a 300 million social media followers.

Other RHRN partners represented at the press conference included Panos A. Panay, President of the Recording Academy ® , RHRN’s Global Music Partner, and Chantel Sausedo, VP Artist Relations of the Recording Academy.

“We are thrilled that the University of Oxford will serve as the Academic Partner for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, and co-host the second Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit next year at Oxford,” said Ben Schachter, Coordinator of the Environment and Climate Change Team at United Nations Human Rights. “The first edition of the Human Rights Climate Commitments being shared today is the product of a consultative, multistakeholder process initiated in the leadup to and informed by the first Right Here Right Now Global Climate Summit organized at the University of Colorado Boulder. We are excited to continue working on these iterative, collective commitments in the years to come through a process of ongoing consultation that will ensure they evolve along with our understanding of climate change and its impacts on human rights.”

“At COP28, we are so pleased to announce the progress that Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has made in the development of several of our climate justice initiatives, including the Human Rights Climate Commitments, which will provide a unique human rights framework for government and business leaders, human rights advocates, climate experts, and universities to kickstart critical action to address the human rights crisis resulting from climate change. We are also honored that the University of Oxford ‘answered the call’ to become our global Academic Partner and co-host the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with United Nations Human Rights,” said David Clark, Founder and CEO of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance.

ABOUT RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW GLOBAL CLIMATE ALLIANCE
Since its launch in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has emerged as the largest public-private partnership addressing climate change as a human rights issue, bringing together human rights experts, scientists, corporate leaders, NGOs, academics, advocates, and people around the globe in the fight for rights-based climate action. In addition to the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit and Human Rights Climate Commitments, next year the alliance will introduce more global initiatives with best-in-class partners in sport, music, education, and technology. The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance has garnered support from celebrities that include Leonardo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Celine Dion, Cher, Jeff Bridges, Camila Cabello, Ellen DeGeneres, Edward Norton, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Pitbull, LL Cool J, Joss Stone, Kesha, and Jack Black, to name just a few. For more information, visit: www.righthererightnow.global

ABOUT UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (“United Nations Human Rights”) is the leading United Nations entity on human rights with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people. Under the leadership of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a staff of 1,500 working in more than 100 countries, it aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere. For more information, visit: www.ohchr.org

Human rights is at the heart of corporate transparency

Thu, 05 May 2022 16:25:36 GMT

Growing investor-led pressure for consistent disclosure on human rights impacts

Stakeholder demands are reaffirming that disclosure on human rights related impacts are central to how companies demonstrate accountability. This is a key conclusion of the new edition of The GRI Perspective, the regular series exploring topical themes in the world of sustainability reporting.

Better human rights reporting - needed now, but how? sets out that the way in which companies quantify their actions in relation to human rights is becoming a core element of ESG reporting. And as new research from the Workforce Disclosure Initiative underlines, investors are concerned by inconsistencies in what companies report on human rights risks.

This has been recognized in a major update to the Universal Standards , which require all organizations using the GRI Standards to report in line with intergovernmental expectations for human rights due diligence, as set by the UN and OECD – the first and only global reporting standards to do so.

" Human rights impacts are hugely important as they form the basis for wider reporting across the entire ESG spectrum. Yet measuring social data is complex. After all, it is easier to quantify a ton of carbon than place a value on human rights. That is why investors and other stakeholders are expecting companies to integrate human rights reporting into their policies, actions, strategy and risk assessment. Through our revised Universal Standards, which come in to effect for all GRI reporting from January next year, we have integrated transparency on human rights at the heart of sustainability reporting. This helps any organization using the GRI Standards to adhere to the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights as well as emerging mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation.”

- Harold Pauwels, Director of Standards

The GRI Universal Standards 2021 update , launched in October last year, includes strengthened human rights due diligence reporting, addressing a previous gap between intergovernmental expectations on business and human rights and the available reporting frameworks.

The changes mean that disclosures on human rights impacts are now expressly included in the Universal Standards, which apply to all reporting organizations (rather than as a separate Topic Standard that a company is only required to report on if it determines it to be material).

GRI offers an online training course, Reporting on Human Rights with GRI Standards 2021 update , accessible now through the GRI Academy.

Six editions of The GRI Perspective have published so far. This briefing series was launched in 2022, with previous issues covering themes that range from stakeholder capitalism to the concept of materiality.

IBM and David Clark Cause announce 2022 Call For Code Challenge

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 19:08:26 GMT

The grand prize winners will take home $200K and help change the world

David Clark Cause, IBM, United Nations Human Rights, and the Linux Foundation today officially launched the 2022 Call For Code. On your marks, get set… save the world.

Now in its fifth year, Call for Code is an annual challenge seeking solutions to the global climate crisis and other societal issues. This year’s focus will be on sustainability, and the teams whose projects earn the top spots will earn up to $200K and continuing support from IBM and its partners.

This year’s challenge calls for solutions to the following sustainability issues:

Build effective and efficient ways to quantifiably promote, preserve, and protect biodiversity
Reduce global food insecurity through, as examples, improvements to distribution or sustainable farming practices
Remove barriers to equal education access and job opportunities to further environmental justice
Improve the ability to measure, analyze, or take decisive action on carbon emissions
Improve access to affordable and reliable clean energy
Improve supply chain transparency and traceability to bring fast and accurate visibility to sustainability issues where they arise
Address issues of water scarcity and quality
Reduce volume of and demand for materials that create the biggest waste footprint (plastics, electronics, food, textile), and encourage reuse/recycle opportunities

Per an IBM press release:

Call for Code participants can identify the sustainability issue they want to solve, form a team, and start building by registering on the new Global Challenge resource site hosted by BeMyApp.

Once registered, participants will be able to attend Challenge Accelerator events to help fast-track their projects, learn from subject matter experts, access exclusive skills-building materials, and use exclusive toolkits, APIs, and data sets from The Weather Company and participating IBM Ecosystem partners.

Previous winners include:

2018: Project Owl
2019: Prometeo
2020: Agrolly
2021: Saaf Water

Quick take: this is a fantastic opportunity. Over the past five years the Call for Code community has grown to around half a million innovators from 180 different countries.

It’s also been selected as the preferred innovation platform of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance .

Call for Code participants join a global force for good the moment they sign up. They get access to IBM partner ecosystem technologies such as cloud services, machine learning models, and developer support.

But, best of all, those who make it to the finals will work with global technology experts to implement their solutions. The winners get to be the change they wish to see , with the force of IBM and its partners’ industry position helping them every step of the way.

Get more information and sign your team up here at the official Call for Code website .

CU Boulder to host UN human rights summit on climate change

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 22:52:09 GMT

The University of Colorado Boulder will host a global climate summit in partnership with UN Human Rights. Thought leaders attending the gathering will examine climate change as a human rights crisis. From CPR.org

The University of Colorado Boulder will host a global climate summit in partnership with UN Human Rights. Thought leaders attending the gathering will examine climate change as a human rights crisis.

CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano talked about the “ Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit ” in front of alumni and students in Washington, D.C. earlier this week. The idea for the summit came out of the UN climate change conference that took place in Glasgow last year.

He said CU’s been a leader in environmental studies and law, on both the human rights and environmental fronts. For him it makes sense that CU would be “a major player in addressing one of the world’s most challenging issues.”

The four day summit is scheduled to start Dec. 1. Events will happen on the campus, as well as virtually, and will bring together experts from around the world. The university is also trying to line up government support. DiStefano met with the White House Office of Science, Technology and Policy, to talk about the project.

“I believe [climate change] is a problem that takes the world to solve,” DiStefano said. “And this UN summit is the first step in doing this.”

Sustainability front and center at CU event as campus gears up to host UN climate summit

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 15:33:31 GMT

DENVER — The University of Colorado Boulder’s annual Chancellor Summit held Wednesday evening in Denver focused on building a sustainable and equitable future, an appropriate topic for a campus that’s set to host a United Nations global conclave on the intersection of human rights and climate change this year.

“CU Boulder has an exceptional history of leadership in the study of climate change and its impact on human rights,” CU Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano said. “With strength in environmental studies, engineering and across the sciences along with a bias for action, CU is a major player in addressing one of the world’s most challenging issues.”

From Dec. 1, 2022, through Dec. 4, the Boulder campus will be at the front and center of the global fight for sustainability and against inequality as it plays host to the UN’s Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit.

“By gathering some of the world’s foremost human rights, scientific, political, educational, cultural and industry leaders, we hope that, together, we can commit to specific outcomes that will address the adverse effects of climate change on human rights,” according to the summit website.

CU leaders primed the pump for December’s UN event Wednesday with speeches from a trio of professors who addressed the intersectionality of climate change and equity.

Matt Burgess, an assistant professor of environmental studies, a faculty affiliate in the Department of Economics and a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, spoke about the need for Americans to move past partisanship and embrace the common values necessary to address the complex challenges facing modern society.

Clint Carroll, associate professor of ethnic studies and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, stressed the importance of weaving indigenous perspectives into the climate change conversation and the need to reevaluate society’s relationship to the natural world.

James White, professor of geological sciences and environmental studies and acting dean of the CU College of Arts and Sciences, extolled the virtues of following simple rules for interacting with the world and fellow humans for the betterment of mankind.

In Colorado — and specifically in the Boulder region, which is still recovering from the devastating Marshall Fire — climate change and its impacts are not abstract concepts.

“The alarm bells of fires and drought are waking people up to the impact of climate resiliency,” Gov. Jared Polis said. “The state needs to provide science-driven, data-driven partnerships with local communities to make sure we can adapt to natural disasters and prevent a disparity [in impacts across different communities] when those disasters occur.”

Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance extends condolences to victims of historic Boulder, Colorado fires, and calls upon leaders to address human rights implications of climate change

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 19:22:10 GMT

BOULDER, CO, January 3, 2022 -- The United Nations Human Rights-supported Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, an international initiative to promote climate change as a human rights crisis, extends its deepest sympathies to the victims of the historic Boulder, Colorado fires that were fueled by record dryness and 100+ mph winds.

In light of over 35,000 evacuations and destruction of 1,000 homes, the alliance applauds first responders, as well as the local, state, and federal response, while calling upon civic leaders and organizations to address widespread human rights implications from this and other catastrophic climate change-related events rapidly increasing around the world.

As global warming accelerates climate change, expert scientists and meteorologists suggest the Boulder fires are yet more evidence of the climate emergency intensifying natural disasters and their impact on people’s human rights. The alliance is launching a worldwide initiative to focus on climate change as a human rights crisis, since it disproportionately affects the poor and marginalized, and vulnerable populations including people of color, women, children, the elderly, indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, rural workers, and persons with disabilities, among others.

“Our heart goes out to victims of the Boulder fires and the innocent people suffering from this crisis. It’s critical that we view climate change through a human rights lens and address obligations of society to respect, protect, fulfill and promote human rights for all persons without discrimination, especially communities on the frontline of climate change,” said David Clark, Founder of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance.

With generous support from Global Partner United Nations Human Rights, the alliance is working with academic institutions, policymakers, NGOs, corporations, scientists, technologists, and the art and entertainment communities on initiatives that address limiting greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring equal access to housing and resources, innovation in early-warning systems, adaptation and mitigation planning, and much more. United Nations Human Rights represents the world’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under the leadership of the High Commissioner, and with a staff of 1,500 working in more than 90 countries, United Nations Human Rights aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere.

United Nations Human Rights and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) will also host the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit in Boulder on December 1 – 4, 2022. The summit is being designed to engage human rights, scientific, political, educational, cultural and industry leaders to commit to specific goals that will help to slow climate change and address its adverse effects on human rights. As media around the world reported on these historic Boulder, Colorado fires that razed entire communities to the ground, the setting of Boulder as the destination for this summit is more poignant than ever.

Ranked #1 in the world in earth science and atmospheric science, CU was selected by the alliance to host the global summit. For more than half a century, CU Boulder has been a leader in climate and energy research, interdisciplinary environmental studies and human rights programs, and has engaged in sustainability practices on campus and beyond. CU Boulder is co-hosting the event as part of its comprehensive public research mission and global leadership in research related to the environment, behavioral sciences and issues related to human rights.

In November 2021 major celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cher, Quincy Jones, Billy Porter, Camila Cabello, Pitbull, Cyndi Lauper, and Ellen DeGeneres teamed up in a social media blitz to help launch the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and support United Nations Human Rights with an urgent plea for leaders assembled at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow to view climate change as a human rights crisis. Leonardo DiCaprio, an Academy Award®-winning actor and advocate for environmental issues, tweeted, “Homes, lands, health, and lives of those most affected by climate change are at risk. Join the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and global partner @unhumanrights in calling for the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow @cop26uk to treat #ClimateChange as the #HumanRights crisis it is. By working together and supporting inclusive rights-based climate action for people and the planet, we can realize a better, more sustainable future for all.”

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Contact:

Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

Rebekah Alperin

reb@gostoryboard.com

+1.310.770.1045